Baked Batang Fish

My hubby and I went to JB on Monday night and we went to one of their night markets to get some groceries. We found a stall selling very fresh Batang fish and bought some home.

I always find cooking fish a challenge as I can only cook with fish fillets as my kids are not good with eating whole fish with bones. With the exception of pomfrets. So whenever I cook fish, I have to consider my kids safety. And it has to agree with their palates too.

One of my cell group friends gave me some Indonesian small red onions which she bought for me. I am not sure if it is psycholigical but it seems to be more fragrant than it's local counterparts. It looks very cute, with a fat body and a long stem head. I will have to deep fry a batch to see if it's really more fragrant. But in the meantime, I am thankful for this friend, Sally, for remembering me.

This is a very easy recipe to follow. Just get the ingredients ready and pop the whole aluminium parcel into the oven. I have given out the weight of the belachan. This makes it easier rather than saying things like a thumb size or a small piece which is not very helpful. The chilli paste that I used is the ready made ones sold at supermarkets. Of course you can make your own chilli paste if you want to. For me, I just like to keep it easy and simple. I love my Moulinex grinder, it's really very powerful and can grind anything (even lengkuas) to a fine paste. It's 800 watts of grinding power! It is cheaper than some grinders I know but it does the job very well.

I use gula melaka syrup rather than grated palm sugar, as it saves work and it's easier to use and measure out. But for those who don't have this, you can use grated palm sugar in the same amount stated in the recipe. Brown sugar can be used too, but it tastes better with gula melaka. As for the assam juice, I just took 1tbsp of assam paste and added some water to get about 1 tbsp of assam juice. Remember to strain the assam juice.

Wash a few banana leaves and lay them on top of the aluminium foil (see pic). Put the fish and all the rest of the ingredients on top of the banana leaves. Wrap it up and marinade in the fridge for 1/2 hr. This way you don't have to use another bowl to marinade the fish in. Also by doing it this way, the vegetables gets additional flavour too. Once it's done marinating, just pop the whole aluminium parcel into the preheated oven to bake.



Bake in the oven for about 30mins. If you prefer the vegetables to have a bit more bite to it, bake for about 28 mins. This dish is great to serve as a one dish meal as it has meat (fish) and vegetables (lady's finger). So if you are in a rush for time, or just want something simple, this is it. And there's no stir-frying involved, just wrap everything up, marinade and pop it into the oven.

Baked Batang Fish

Ingredients:
3 Batang Fillets
6 Lady's Finger
1 Red Onion (cut into sections)

Marinade (grind to paste):
6 Shallots
2 cloves Garlic
30g Belachan
1 Lemongrass
50g Chilli Paste

Seasonings:
1tbsp Lime Juice
1tbsp Tamarind Juice
11/2tbsp Palm Sugar (grated)
1tsp Salt
50g Coconut Milk
1tbsp Sugar
4pcs Assam Peel

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Rinse fish and pat dry with kitchen paper towel.
3. Prepare a large piece of aluminium foil. Place banana leaves on top. 
4. Place fish, lady's fingers, onion, the marinade paste and seasonings onto the the banana leaves. Wrap it up and place parcel in the fridge and marinade for 1/2 hr.
5. Bake in preheated oven for about 25-30mins.